Manchester International Festival to host Britain's first vertical farm in 2013

August 09, 2011

Manchester could be at the forefront of an ‘agricultural revolution’ if a radical plan to solve the world’s food crisis takes off.

Organisers of Manchester’s International Festival 2013 want to turn a disused tower block in Wythenshawe into Britain’s first ‘vertical farm’.

The idea has already been attempted in cities around the world. But it will be trialled for the first time in this country in Wythenshawe at a derelict office block, named Alpha House.

The multi-storey greenhouse will use modern farming techniques, such as hydroponics and aquaponics, to produce vegetables including lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers as well as supporting fish, chickens and bees.

It is hoped the farm will be able to grow enough food to supply the international festival in 2013.

But Steve Connor, CEO of Creative Concern which is spearheading the project, said the people of Wythenshawe are central to its success. We want to do this with the community of Wythenshawe,” he said.

“It’s the perfect place to kick it off. You’ve got a town centre that’s being revitalised, a certain amount of food activity in terms of the allotments – there’s every hope we’ll be able to unlock a significant amount of local support. It’s really critical.”

Architect Charlie Baker explained the decision to choose a tower block. He said: “The primary interest is that it’s already there as an unused office building. If you search Google for ‘vertical farms’ you will mostly see architecturally-produced images – but in a lot of cases they’re not wildly practical. Our view was, if you’re going to show a way of growing food inside a building, you might as well use one no one wants any more.

“From a modern building point of view, it’s a bit of a basket case. The windows are single-glazed and there’s no insulation. If we can make it work here we can make it work anywhere.”

The idea of vertical farming was first proposed by Professor Dickson Despommier, of Columbia University in New York, who came to Manchester to help launch the project.

If successful, it is hoped vertical farms could take off across Greater Manchester.

“What happens after depends on how well it works,” said Charlie. “But I hope it builds into a hub for home-grown food across the north west.

“Manchester has a heritage of making ideas work. We led the industrial revolution – why can’t we lead an agricultural one?”

The Manchester International Festival boosted the city’s economy by £37.6m, according to a new report.

The biennial arts event is being hailed a resounding success after exceeding almost every target and attracting more people than ever before.

This year’s festival drew top names including Björk and Snoop Dogg and works by Damon Albarn and Victoria Wood during an 18-day programme this summer.

Attendance was up four per cent on 2009 – from 223,960 to 231,598 – and turnover increased by 19pc on 2009.

The festival also helped to push up hotel occupancy and footfall in the city centre, with international attendance up 126 per cent, according to an independent study going to a Manchester town hall committee.

Councillors will be asked to approve £2m funding for a 2013 festival when they meet next week, as well £500,000 underwriting of expected public sector funding from organisations such as Arts Council England.

The report shows that commercial sponsorship for this year’s festival fell to £2.4m – down from £2.9m in 2009 and £3.3m in 2007.

But this was more than made up for by an increase in so-called ‘co-commissioning’ – where outside organisations pay to share in future profits raised by MIF shows – which rose from £750,000 in 2009 to more than £2m this year, and by a 50pc increase in box office receipts.

Coun Mike Amesbury, Executive Member for Culture and Leisure, said: "This year’s festival was a resounding success and shows it is going from strength to strength despite the difficult economic climate."

Festival director Alex Poots said: "We are very grateful to the council for their unflagging support."

The Manchester International Festival boosted the city’s economy by £37.6m, according to a new report.

The biennial arts event is being hailed a resounding success after exceeding almost every target and attracting more people than ever before.

This year’s festival drew top names including Björk and Snoop Dogg and works by Damon Albarn and Victoria Wood during an 18-day programme this summer.

Attendance was up four per cent on 2009 – from 223,960 to 231,598 – and turnover increased by 19pc on 2009.

The festival also helped to push up hotel occupancy and footfall in the city centre, with international attendance up 126 per cent, according to an independent study going to a Manchester town hall committee.

Councillors will be asked to approve £2m funding for a 2013 festival when they meet next week, as well £500,000 underwriting of expected public sector funding from organisations such as Arts Council England.

The report shows that commercial sponsorship for this year’s festival fell to £2.4m – down from £2.9m in 2009 and £3.3m in 2007.

But this was more than made up for by an increase in so-called ‘co-commissioning’ – where outside organisations pay to share in future profits raised by MIF shows – which rose from £750,000 in 2009 to more than £2m this year, and by a 50pc increase in box office receipts.

Coun Mike Amesbury, Executive Member for Culture and Leisure, said: "This year’s festival was a resounding success and shows it is going from strength to strength despite the difficult economic climate."

Festival director Alex Poots said: "We are very grateful to the council for their unflagging support."

The first commissions for Manchester International Festival 2013 are due to be announced tomorrow Thursday 15th November.

Quote:

The wait is almost over

Visit our website tomorrow for the announcement of the first commissions in the next Manchester International Festival, which runs Thu 4 - Sun 21 July, 2013. The full Festival programme will be revealed next Spring.

Sir Kenneth Branagh and Mercury Prize-winning band The xx will be among the highlights of next year's Manchester International Festival, each promising intimate shows in unusual venues.

Sir Kenneth will play Macbeth for the first time in his career in a deconsecrated church in the city.

It will be his first Shakespeare play for more than a decade.

The xx will play a string of gigs in a secret "enigmatic found space" during the 18-day festival next July.

The event is held every two years and 2013 will be its fourth incarnation. Bjork, Victoria Wood and Damon Albarn were among the star attractions last year.

Sir Kenneth will give 17 performances as Macbeth in a new production by Emmy and Tony award-winning director Rob Ashford.

Regarded as one of the great modern Shakespearean actors, he last appeared in one of the Bard's plays in Richard III at the Sheffield Crucible in 2002.

The xx, who won the Mercury Prize in 2010, will have a residency at the festival, playing for fewer than 100 people at a time.

Festival director Alex Poots said: "We continue to make ambitious and engaged work with some of the world's greatest artists and thinkers, while taking the festival - and our audiences - in new, unexpected and challenging directions."

The event has earned a reputation for staging world-class premieres and one-off events from the worlds of music, theatre and art.

Last year's highlights ranged from the premiere of a show about the life and imagined death of Serbian-born performance artist Marina Abramovic to a stage comedy based around a TV shopping channel starring comedian Johnny Vegas.

The full programme for next year's festival will be announced in February.

It will also include a project examining how to create sustainable food supplies in an era of rising populations and urban living.

An old industrial building in Salford will be converted into an agricultural space filled with experiments in sustainable food, technology and design.

Manchester festival has honour of actor's first Shakespeare role in 10 years in 'immersive' staging within deconsecrated church

Charlotte Higgins, chief arts writer

The Guardian, Wednesday 14 November 2012 19.50

Unless you count his performance of "the isle is full of noises" speech from The Tempest at the Olympics opening ceremony, it has been a decade since Kenneth Branagh played a Shakespeare role on the stage: that was Richard III at the Crucible in Sheffield.

Next year, however, the actor is to take on one of the most testing parts in the repertoire: Macbeth. And he will do it in the intimate circumstances of a deconsecrated church in Manchester, to an audience of not more than 300 at a time. According to Alex Poots, the director of the Manchester international festival: "It will certainly not be the audience observing the action from a distance, behind the proscenium arch. They'll feel very involved. It will be an immersive experience."

The festival, said Poots, had tempted Branagh through its experience of making work in unconventional spaces and unexpected ways, citing two projects conceived for the 2009 festival: the architect Zaha Hadid designed a pavilion specially for performances of Bach, and It Felt Like A Kiss, a dystopian vision of America, was performed in a derelict office block by theatre company Punchdrunk and documentary maker Adam Curtis.

Rob Ashford, behind acclaimed productions of Anna Christie and A Streetcar Named Desire at London's Donmar Warehouse, is to co-direct Macbeth, along with Branagh, who was knighted this month. In fact intimacy might be regarded as a keynote of the first shows announced for the 2013 festival, which runs from 4 to 21 July.

The xx, the band whose eponymous debut album won the Mercury in 2009, and whose latest, Co-exist, was released to praise this autumn, is to undertake a residency at the festival. Instead of performing one major show, they will play around 17 concerts, each to an audience of not more than 70.

Audience members will be asked to congregate at a meeting point, and will then be conveyed to another secret venue: "We will appeal to our audience's generous sides to keep it a secret," said Poots, referring to those who watched the rehearsals for the Olympics opening ceremony and "saved the surprise".

"In an environment when things are so available – where anyone can get the music they want immediately online – we are thinking about how there is something very precious about the live experience," said Poots. "I sense there is something in the air, with everything having been so money-driven over the past decade, that now some artists are feeling a responsibility to respond to the culture in more generous ways."

It was unusual, he said, for a "big band that is breaking through" to step out of the mould of touring to huge venues. The xx shows, he said, would be moulded by "a very smart creative team" that would work with the band to create a theatrical, strongly visual element to the concerts.

The Manchester international festival was founded in 2007; at its heart is the notion of presenting new work in all genres and, according to Poots, giving artists the opportunity "to realise their great unrealised projects".

Manchester International Festival in the money as £2m pours in
November 16, 2012

The fourth Manchester International Festival is on course to attract more private sponsorship than any other festival in the country.

Fundraising from commercial and individual sponsors for next year&rsquo;s cultural extravaganza has already passed the £2m mark &ndash; 75 per cent of the target.

Top-tier sponsors signed up so far include property giant Bruntwood, the Co-operative Group, Manchester Airports Group, NCP and PZ Cussons.

All the companies are returning sponsors, with many having supported MIF since it was first held in 2007. The M.E.N &ndash; which will again be a media partner of the festival &ndash; revealed yesterday that one of the headline acts for next July&rsquo;s event will be Sir Kenneth Branagh. The actor-director will play Macbeth in a deconsecrated church in central Manchester.

Philip Spedding, director of Art & Business, a charitable organisation set up to help arts and business work together for mutual benefit, said: "MIF is a remarkable success story.

"We believe it is now on course to become the biggest UK festival in terms of private-sector support."

Festival director Alex Poots said: "Manchester&rsquo;s business community is again putting its weight behind the festival, matching the excellent example set by our public funders - Manchester City Council, Salford City Council and Arts Council England.

"We are grateful to all our sponsors and funders for their commitment in what continues to be a very testing time for business, the arts and the public sector across the country."

Andrew Harrison from Manchester Airport said: "The Manchester International Festival is something different and brings an international focus to our city, drawing additional visitors from around the world and allowing artists of great stature to perform."

MIF receives 40 per cent of its funding from the public sector &ndash; including £2m from Manchester council &ndash; with the remaining 60 per cent coming from sponsors, co-commisioning, ticket sales and donations.

Manchester council leader Sir Richard Leese said: "We&rsquo;re really proud to support Manchester International Festival and it is great to see that some of the biggest names in in the private sector also recognise MIF&rsquo;s real value."

An independent study into the last festival held in 2011 found that it boosted the city&rsquo;s economy by £37.6m.

Theatre to take centre-stage as line-up for Manchester International Festival is revealed28 Feb 2013 13:00Kenneth Branagh, Neneh Cherry, Maxine Peake, Sir John Tavener, Massive Attack and The xx are among the star names at this year's festival

Kenneth Branagh, Neneh Cherry, Maxine Peake, Sir John Tavener, Massive Attack, Goldfrapp, The xx, world-renowned pianist Martha Argerich and Manchester band Delphic have been revealed as the star names at this year's Manchester International Festival.

Branagh and Peake were joined by the festival's chief executive Alex Poots in the city today to announce the full programme for the biennial event, which takes place right across Manchester from July 4 to July 24.

In its fourth year, the festival maintains a diverse mix of music, arts, theatre and chat, but in 2013 theatre takes centre stage. And MIF will also bring some long-forgotten spaces back into use, including the former Methodist-owned Albert Hall and the disused railway station and storage facility Mayfield Depot.

Hollywood actor Willem Dafoe returns for a second time to co-star in a production of The Old Woman with dancer and actor Mikhail Baryshnikov, directed by Robert Wilson - who worked on The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic in 2011's festival.

Branagh's appearance in Macbeth was revealed last month and tickets for the intimate shows at a still-secret deconsecrated Manchester church sold out in minutes. In response, the festival will now broadcast a live production onto a big screen at the Bridgewater Hall car park on July 20 for an audience of around 5,000.

Peake will star in a one-woman adaptation of Percy Bysshe Shelley's The Masque of Anarchy, a political poem about the Peterloo Massacre in which 15 Mancunians perished and hundreds were injured as they campaigned for parliamentary reform, staged in the Albert Hall just metres away from the original massacre.

And casting continues for The Machine, the story of chess player Garry Kasparov which is being directed by Salford-born director Josie Rourke and performed at Campfield Market Hall - home to Bjork's Biophilia in 2011.

In music, the Festival Pavilion in Albert Square will host residencies from Delphic, who will rework their new album Collections with a host of international musicians for three nights; Swedish musician Neneh Cherry, who showcases her new album RoketNumberNine in the opening weekend; and young music pioneer and grime music enthusiast Jamal Edwards.

LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy unites with Too Many DJs (aka Soulwax) to play four vinyl-only club nights on a custom built sound system at the Co-operative Ballroom in New Century Hall, The xx play several nights at a secret venue throughout the festival, spiritual singer Abida Parveen makes a one-off rare appearance at the Bridgewater, and Goldfrapp unite with the RNCM string orchestra for two nights at the Albert Hall.

John Tavener will be joined by the BBC Philharmonic and the MIF Sacred Sounds Women's Choir to premiere three new pieces of music, Scottish band Mogwai will soundtrack a film about legendary footballer Zinedine Zidane, and Bestival organiser Rob da Bank teams up with Manchester photographer Kevin Cummins for a audio-visual exploration of Manchester music through the decades and the alphabet.

In art, duo Massive Attack join It Felt Like A Kiss and The Crash Of The Elysium director Felix Barrett and filmmaker Adam Curtis, group show do it 20 13 takes over Manchester Art Gallery with interactive performance pieces, and at Mayfield Depot a collaboration of artists stage free exhibitions during the day and Stavinsky's The Rite of Spring soundtracks a dancing cloud of bone china dust by night.

Innis Goris brings Once Upon A Time to Manchester Town Hall, a mixed media performance based on children's stories for families, and Indian artist Nikhil Chopra responds to Manchester's textile industry with Coal on Cotton, exploring how these commodities maintain modern day slavery.

DJ and author Dave Haslam also returns with a series of In Conversation events, this time with Neneh Cherry and Jamal Edwards, and as one of the stellar Manchester DJs lined up to play for free at the Pavilion throughout the festival alongside Will Tramp, Drunk at Vogue and Disco Mums.